A major revolution in video display technology includes flat screens based on either liquid crystal display (LCD) or plasma display panel (PDP) technology, which are rapidly replacing the cathode ray tube (CRT) technology that served as the primary display device for more than a half a century. A significant consequence of the new video display technologies is that pictures may now be displayed at higher picture-rates with progressive scanning on a flat screen. The new video display technologies may also facilitate a faster transition from standard definition (SD) television (TV) to high-definition (HD) television.
Formats with lower picture-rates may be utilized in legacy video compression systems for displaying legacy video on modern display screens. There may be restrictions on channel capacity that may affect the display of low picture-rate pictures. For example, consider a 30 Hz video sequence that may be broadcast over a mobile network, and terminals, for example, mobile phones that may receive an encoded video sequence from a server. However, due to bandwidth limitations, only a low bit-rate video sequence may be communicated. As a result, the encoder may remove two out of every three pictures to be transmitted, resulting in a sequence with a picture rate of about 10 Hz, for example. The available channel capacity may be different in diverse video services. The legacy systems may be different in different regions of the world, for example, NTSC, SECAM or PAL.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.